Based at Zoo Atlanta, the Great Ape Heart Project (GAHP) addresses a critical need within the zoo community to investigate and understand cardiovascular disease in great apes. The project was established with the goal of creating and maintaining a centralized database that can help us analyze cardiac data, generate reports, and coordinate cardiac-related research activities, while vastly improving communication among zoos, research facilities and sanctuaries where apes are housed. The data we collect will help individual animals, as well as enhance a body of knowledge that will benefit zoos internationally.

Who are the project partners?

Organizing partners are Zoo Atlanta, the Emerging Diseases Research Group of the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, the UC Davis College of Veterinary Medicine, and the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. The project now involves more than 70 institutions, including veterinarians, cardiologists, geneticists, epidemiologists, nutritionists, animal managers, ape specialists and research pathologists. Read more about our Project Partners here.

How did the Great Ape Heart Project come to exist?The Primary Objectives of the Great Ape Heart Project (GAHP) and needs of the greater zoo community:

Bringing together essential stakeholders from a wide range of disciplines and communities in order to establish systematic measures for identifying heart disease and to create an accessible system for monitoring and reporting cardiovascular-related illnesses

Determine normal reference ranges for cardiac structure, function, and electrical conduction in each of the great ape species

Design an appropriate assessment protocol to investigate CVD in great apes